Rescued Raleighs: Mountain Tour - Grand Mesa

This pair of twin Raleigh USA “Mountain Tour" bikes was pulled from the metal pile at the local transfer station. The best I can tell they were made around 1984-86, during the time Huffy was selling a line of bikes using the Raleigh name. These bikes were made in Taiwan for Huffy and branded Raliegh USA. Some one must have gotten paid a bonus to see how many places they could fit the Raleigh name or logo on the bike.

The pictures are of the as-found grimy condition, except that I put some air in the tires and rode each one around the yard a bit. Despite the weight, they are pretty comfortable rides.

These bikes were part of the “Mountain Tour" line, and are the bottom of the barrel “Grand Mesa" Model. They are tanks at 34 lbs, and nearly every metal part is steel, the only exceptions being the cranks, spider, shifter lever, and brake parts.

The bullmoose handle bars are kind of cool. The wheels are 650B. Three of the tires look original, and the size “44-584" is molded on the side, and rims are stamped “26 x 1-1/2". This matches them up with 650B in the wheel and tire size charts on Sheldon’s site. Raleigh also offered the much nicer "Portage" touring model with 650B wheels during this time period.

The last picture shows a couple of 3 speeds also pulled from the metal pile at different times. Both have 40 hole S-A AW hubs. The black one is a 1972 Raleigh Ladies Sports. The other rusty looking one is a stripped down 1964 Phillips.